Research: Young women blaze the trail in using social media services

Almost every other Finn claims to make use of corporate social media services. Young women make the most use of social media.

Finns use social media services to varying degrees. Around half of the population use social media services, and half do not use them at all. Only around one third (29%) of Finns between 15 and 24 years of age claimed not to make any use of social media.

“The 15–24-year-old respondent group made the most use of social media. Of this group, 71% were women. You can say that young women are light years ahead of everyone else in utilizing social media,” says Descom’s Executive Consultant Juha Luomala.

The most common reason for using social media (21% of the respondents) was to search for discounts. The second most popular use was reading reviews and product recommendations written by other users (18%). Twelve percent of the respondents searched for new products in social media.

Forty percent of the young respondents used social media to find discounts. Thirty five percent of the same group read other users’ product recommendations.

“The significant difference compared with other respondent groups was surprising,” Luomala continues. “Young women are truly blazing the trail now. This segment is a significant influencer and purchasing group, particularly in fashion and cosmetics, so stores investing in these product categories should really make good use of this potential.

Descom’s study was part of the Online shopping and social media research project published last summer. It was answered by 1090 Finns and carried out as part of TNS Gallup’s Online Shopping 2013 study.